Love, The Universal Language

As most of you know, there was a team of us from Awakening who went to Peru on a missions trip this past March. We were so blessed to have our missionary contacts in the states this past week, so we decided a reunion was in order. We brought our team back together and shared stories of what God had been doing in our lives and in those who are still in Peru. It was such an encouragement to hear how the children from the orphanage were doing. One of my teammates explained what he had learned on the trip and it hit me so hard. He explained that in trips he had done in the past had a physical purpose, like building a home. Our goal for the trip was to love these kids. We played games, swam, rode horses and hung out with the kids. There was no physical outcome for our time there. This was unlike any other trip for this teammate and the rest of us. We were broken of our comfort zones and had so much interaction with these precious kids. We were there to love; that’s it.

Love is an interesting thing to me. Everyone needs love. Everyone desires to be loved. It crosses races, genders, countries, oceans and religions. It’s something that everyone knows about. Love can be shown in building a home; it can also be shown in playing games with kids. Our missionary contact said that the kids we had in our camp for the week had progressed more in the week they were with us than in the past YEAR. Praise Jesus! These children were loved. Plain and simple. God has given us the ability to love and feel loved. We when are willing to obey what God has asked us to do, it is HIS love that is moving through us. The love that these children felt weren’t from me or my team; it was of Jesus. There is nothing more powerful than the love of God. It was proven when He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins. That, my dear friends, is why we should love.

Love is a universal language. Everyone knows it. Everyone can see it. Everyone wants it. How much more effective could our love be if we allow God to move through us? How much greater could the Kingdom of God be if we loved well in our spheres of influence? There are people in our lives who may only see Jesus through our lives. That’s a lot of pressure if you ask me. That thought holds me accountable to how I live my life. I’m constantly checking my actions and asking “Would someone see that I have a relationship with Jesus if I… (fill in the blank)?” Friends, we don’t deserve love. We don’t deserve anything that God has given us. That is why we must love well. We love because Christ loved us first. If we were to live our lives in such a way that reflected the love of Christ, how much more of an impact would we have in the lives of those around us?